Normally, you can find me in someone’s home, trying to make it better suit their needs. This week though, you could find me in a barn instead! We are visiting the Heartland Equine Therapeutic Riding Association, also known as HETRA of Omaha/Valley. Created in 1989, HETRA has helped both adults and children with disabilities participate in therapeutic riding activities. You can learn more about them www.hetra.org.
As Edye Godden, OTR/L, the Executive Director explains, Hippotherapy is an exciting and different form of therapy that many people participate in, which not only helps with posture and balance, but helps release tense muscles and provides stimulating social contact. It’s also a very exiting experience that many people who are not fully mobile would otherwise never get to participate in. However, helping people with disabilities onto horses is not always easy. Transfers like this can be hard on the riders, the therapists, the volunteers, and the horses. That’s where we were able to help with a SureHands Lift and Care System.
We installed a lift system very similar to one that someone could get in their house. The lift makes it much easier and safer to help larger people onto and off of the horses, which help them relax and enjoy the therapy faster and get more benefit out of it. So, share the news and share the video! HETRA and Total Home Access Solutions can help get you on top of things. Like a horse, for instance!
Hi everyone. I want to talk to you about doorways, mainly getting through the doorway. I work with a lot of people who use wheelchairs and walkers; sometimes they find out they are just a little bit wider than the door.
What do you do?
When you are wider than the door, you have two choices. You can do construction. You can take the door out of the frame and widen it. However, if the doorway is only an inch too small, we can do an amazing thing just by replacing the hinges!
You can see the door takes up space in the door jam. If we use a product call an offset hinge and replace the current hinges on the door, we can use the same door, the same door jam and knob. What that offset hinge does is move the door out of the doorway when it’s open. That gives you another inch of usable space!
We also can add a receiver for your doorknob in the wall. This gives some space for the doorknob to go when the door is open.
So share the news and share the video! You have some choices if you are a little wider than the doorway. You can do full construction or you can try and offset hinge!
Stair
glides do cost money, especially if you buy them from a reputable,
experienced dealer who can provide product knowledge and service. I
see my clients tempted everyday to save a little money and just keep on
struggling up and down the stairs. I think this falls into the “penny
wise, pound foolish” category of thinking.
Sometimes it
is easier for a person to see the need when they’ve experienced a
traumatic event and go from having no problems on the stairs to
difficulty with them over a short period of time. They feel the impact
that problems moving within their homes cause more keenly, and they are
looking for solutions.
When
the problem with negotiating steps comfortably has developed over a
long period of time it is usually harder for a person to see the need
for equipment like a stair glide. They may or may not have noticed that
it simply takes more effort to go up and down the stairs. Perhaps
they accept their arthritis pain as normal and aren’t aware of the
stress that the stairs puts on their joints. Or they stumble one day
and realize that they really haven’t felt comfortably balanced while
maneuvering on stairs for quite a while. I will usually suspect a
problem with the stairs when a person describes their daily routine in a
way that makes it evident that they are arranging their lives around
avoiding the stairs. I’ve met people living in older 2 story homes,
who limit the amount of water they drink during the day because they
don’t want to have to use the stairs to get upstairs to the bathroom. I
know so many people who gradually become recluses simply because it
takes too much effort or is too frightening to navigate steps to get
outside.
Other people have told me quite proudly that
they would never consider a stair glide. When I ask why they tell me
that they believe they need the exercise or that they believe that
they’ve been told by their physician or therapist that the stairs are
good exercise for them. Now, I rarely come right out and disagree
with another health professional, but I think there is a time and place
for exercise and an area where the consequence of a mis-step is a tumble
down the stairs is not it! If you have balance or strength problems,
exercise somewhere else in your home where a fall is less likely to kill
you.
Here are a few things we look for other than
stairwell width, height, and length when we are recommending stair
glides. These factors influence they type of options and features we
recommend as well as the cost.
• Can the client get up and down out of chair safely? Do they need things like handles or grab bars for balance?
•
Is there room at the top and bottom of the stairs for wheelchairs or
walkers now and in the future? If the client uses mobility equipment,
are they prepared to have duplicate equipment at the top and bottom of
the system?
• Are there any structural changes that
need to be made such as moving handrails, modifying doors around the
track, or providing convenient electrical outlets?
•
Will the track itself create a trip hazard at either the top or bottom
of their stairs? Will the track present a hazard to others on the
stairs?
• Is there clearance for their head and knees
when they are riding? We have modified door casings at the top of a
stairwell to provide a vital 1.5” of space for a tall person.
•
What is the client’s weight? Larger weight capacity chairs cost more,
but are worth it in the long run for safety, and a longer useful life if
a person is close or over the manufacturer’s posted weight limit.
• Where are good locations for call/send switches.
•
What safety improvements can we make around the chair glide such as
removal of clutter, removal of loose throw rugs, and improvement of
lighting?
Compared
to your safety, your independence, and the quality of every day living,
a stair glide for a straight stairwell is usually pretty cheap. Curved
stairwells or stairwells with landings are more expensive as the track
is often customized but is still usually less expensive than moving or a
trip to the emergency room and rehab. We think the quality of your
life is worth at least considering a safe way to have use of every level
of your home.
